Author event with Elizabeth Alexander
About this Event
Parnassus Books is thrilled to present an evening with Elizabeth Alexander to celebrate her new book, Signals Across Vast Distances, in conversation with Major Jackson.
This ticketed event will take place at Parnassus Books (3900 Hilllsboro Pike, Suite 14, Nashville, TN 37215) on Thursday, June 18th, at 6:30 PM.
Tickets:
$29.75 - includes one general admission seat and one signed copy of Signals Across Vast Differences. All books will be pre-signed, and there will be a signing line for personalizations after the event.
Parking:
There is ample free parking in front of the store, as well as in the lot and garage behind the store.
About the book:
In this deeply personal book, Elizabeth Alexander gives us profound and galvanizing lessons from culture and life to move through challenging times. In close readings of visionary and beloved poets and writers--Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and June Jordan, among others--Dr. Alexander meditates on how words and values can sustain and inspire us, interweaving her voice with revelatory works of art by some of our most extraordinary visual artists, richly reproduced in the book's pages.
Her stories of connection--as a daughter, wife, widow, and mother of two sons; reflecting at midlife on her younger days as an aspiring dancer; as a poet at President Obama's inauguration on the dais alongside her father, a civil rights pioneer; urging radical welcome in our families, communities, and country--engage and move us. Her reflections on the public project of acknowledging historical truths, a focus of her leadership at the Mellon Foundation, model courageous action.
Throughout the book, Alexander poses questions, encouraging readers to recognize the abundant resources we carry within or can access: language, history, art, community, family, our bodies, our stories, and love itself. In luminous and powerful prose, Signals Across Vast Distances calls us to imagine possibilities, take courage, and--in Alexander's closing words--lead with love.
About the author:
Elizabeth Alexander is a prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author, renowned poet, educator, scholar, and cultural advocate. Her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. She composed and recited "Praise Song for the Day" for President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration and is currently president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation's largest funder of the arts, culture, and humanities. She lives and works in New York City.
About Major Jackson:
Major Jackson is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems, recipient of the inaugural Patricia Cannon Willis Prize from Yale Library. His edited volumes include Best American Poetry 2019, Renga for Obama, and Library of America's Countee Cullen: Collected Poems. Former host of The Slowdown podcast, from American Public Media, he is the recipient of fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, John S. Guggenheim Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts. Jackson lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. He serves as poetry editor of The Harvard Review. Major Jackson is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 36.87
